Saturday, June 28 Just outside of Xi’an several decades ago, a few farmer’s discovered the largest archaeological sight in the world, the site of the Terracotta Army. The army is pretty impressive, but as might be expected surrounding the so-called eighth wonder of the world is a mess of tourist traps. The actual Terracotta Army would surely lose in battle to the miniature souvenir army that has surrounded its position. An indication of some of the mystery surrounding the site or of the cynicism of some of my colleagues- several of my classmates were convinced the whole site was a hoax by the time we left.
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Now to focus on the work at hand.
Our studio work is going well. Our team includes three MIT students and two Tsinghua students, consisting of a South African, Australian, two Chinese students and an American. Luckily we work well together and are able to produce a large amount of work in fairly short time. The studio project is the redevelopment of a giant state-owned steel mill and industrial site on the Western edge of Beijing. This week’s work was focused primarily on the conceptual framework and overall planning of the project. We gave team presentations on Tuesday and Friday, worked pretty hard and the work was reasonably well received. On Friday we finished our presentations, went to the hotel packed a bag, took an overnight train to Xi’an and were visiting the famed Terracotta Army before we knew what had happened.
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Saturday, June 21 We did some Beijing touring today. Beginning with the Beijing Planning Museum. Then to some of the major sites along the main and massive North-South axis of the city. First was the Temple of Heaven. A gigantic and sprawling monument where the emperors of dynasties past would commune with the heavens. We walked through the vast spatial wasteland that is Tiannamen Square, equal parts monumentality and emptiness. We took a quick peak at the new National Opera House, referred to as “the Egg”, given its large egg shaped. Next we toured the Forbidden City, the emperor’s palace and grounds, aptly named as it is large enough to be a city. The city is an incomparable collection of traditional Chinese architecture and sequenced space. We were then done touring for the day and went out to dinner, drinks or some such thing.
Sunday, June 22 Today a smaller group of us went for a long bike ride to see some of Beijing. Although somewhat crazy, as it turns out, seeing Beijing by bicycle is great and pretty easy to do. We first rode to the new collection of olympic buildings. The information/media building, nanatorium and stadium, “the bird’s nest” were all highlights. The skyscraper with a silhouette of the olympic torch is also interesting. We next were treated to home visits of several relatives and acquaintenances of our Chinese TA. It was nice to see the interiors of several homes and meet our TA’s family. They all lived in mid- and high-rise buildings from about the 1950’s and onward.. We next rode through the more traditional Beijing city fabric of the Hutong (alleyway) and Siheyuan (courtyard house). These tiny streets and mostly beautiful old houses are a terrific part of the city. Many thousands of acres of these streets are razed each year as the Beijing redevelops and densifies. We finished our ride at the city’s Bell and Drum Towers. Cental features of the main North-South axis. Although it may seem like a quick list of sights, this bike ride lasted about 10 hours. After the ride, it’s back to work, ignoring studio is over.
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Friday, June 20th On Monday we arrived in Beijing, got settled into our hotel, rented bicycles and formed teams. We were introduced to the project with a lecture and had a welcome banquet dinner with the Tsinghua students and faculty.
On Tuesday we woke early and went to the site of the studio investigation. The site is a gigantic and functioning steel mill that will soon be relocated and the site redeveloped in some manner. We toured the plant, site and did a brief site analysis survey and returned to campus by early evening. We then did some work and got organized for more work.
Wednesday, the first day of studio work. A decent working day, interspresed with meals including a visit to Tsinghua’s largest dining hall. Quite large for a 20,000 student undergrad population.
Thursday, the second day of studio work. More intensive working day with shorter, but delicious meals interrupting a study stream of productivity. Incidentally, we have ventured outside the walls of our protective bucolic campus only three times. We must improve that statistic.
Friday, busy work morning preparing for our first formal team presentation. Findings of site analysis and preliminary proposals. It went well. All teams produced a ridiculous amount of work for 2.5 days.
Starting with this blog post, we now have a weekend of a bit of free time. Tonight we’ll all have a relaxing dinner and then do some Beijing touring over the weekend. The next studio assignment goes out tomorrow.
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Happy Father’s Day! I hope my dad and father-in-law had a good day. We made it to Beijing and have been in traffic now for a while. We are driving to Tsinghua University to get settled in. The overnight train from Shanghai was really nice and the sleeper cars were very comfortable. However, apparently the Chinese don’t stow away the top bunks when not in use because no one knew how to get them back down come sleep time. Upon seeing our bunked beds and excellent headroom, one conductor exclaimed: WWHHHAA??!?? Thus indicating difficulty in undoing our proud accomplishment. Today we get settled into Beijing with introductions, bikes and teams.
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June 15 After another garden in Suzhou, we visited the No. 1 Silk Factory(slow link). As in China #1. We saw silk worms and their cocoons, the separating of the silk cocoons, processing of silk, and many silk products. All culminating in a silk fashion show or a duvet cover, the ultimate finale was unclear to me. Now back to Shanghai for an overnight train to Beijing and our home for a few weeks.
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June 14 We left Shanghai to visit the towns of Zhujiajiao and Suzhou.
Zhujiajao was a small well-preserved canal town. We spent the afternoon walking around the canals, small lanes and shops.
Suzhou is a much more substantial and significant city and a historic center of trade and silk. Suzhou is also a city of great private gardens. We visited the Humble Administrator’s Garden, the Lingering Garden and the Keeper of Nets Garden. All very beautiful and spatially choreographed traditional Chinese gardens. We spent the night in Suzhou and go back to Shanghai tomorrow to get the overnight train to Beijing.
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June 13 Another day of Shanghai touring. Today, we started at the French secession quarter with walking, a museum and some traditional housing. We then made our way to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. A surprisingly large 5-story exhibition hall dedicated to, you guessed it, the planning of Shanghai. The profession seems to be more highly revered here. After, we took a stroll down Nanjing Road, a main pedestian shopping boulevard uncomfortable in its large scale and attention to foreigners. By my estimation everyone in Shanghai is selling either rolexes, bags, or shoes and any one of them could approach you at any moment to see if you’re interested in buying some of their replica objects. We had a hot pot for dinner and some drinks. Tomorrow, we leave Shanghai for Zhujiajiao, a so-called water town and the city of Suzhou.
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June 12 Today, we toured around in Shanghai. First, we went to Pudong, the new burgeoning world-class skyscraper district and checked out the surroundings from a tower observation deck. Tower in the park is alive and well. Second, we visited the Xintiandi District. Basically, a Shanghai version of Faneuil Hall, old city fabric repurposed for high end retail. Third, we went to some very nice traditional Chinese gardens with special rocks that were almost certainly “lucky”. We milled around the surrounding street markets and had jasmine and love butterfly tea in a traditional Chinese tea house. The touring finished with a river cruise with the Pudong skyscrapers on one bank and classical architecture of the Bund on the other, there were even fireworks. We had a drink to end the day with an unexpected performance by Phillipino lounge singers.
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June 11 After connecting in Chicago for a 14 hour flight, I arrived in Shanghai Wednesday at 2pm (local time and day). We waited at the airport for all classmates to arrive, then boarded our delayed bus to get to the hotel in downtown Shanghai. We got to the hotel at 11pm, putting our door-to-door total travel time at 30 hours (not including time changes). We are 12 hours ahead of Boston time, don’t change you watch, just flip AM and PM. An itinerary for the next few days was distributed, we’ll be touring in and around Shanghai for a few days, leaving for Beijing on Sunday.
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